I certainly share your concern.
The 50% discount became news because we actually emailed Loblaw ourselves in January because we were hearing rumours. We basically emailed Loblaw and asked if it was true that the 50% discount policy was ending at Loblaw. They confirmed that it was actually being rolled out as of January 14 of something. I asked them for permission to post the email on X. I asked them what the reason was. They basically said that they wanted to align their policy with competitors.
To me, it raised many red flags for two reasons. One, they disclosed openly what they were doing. Two, Loblaw allowed me to post the email on social media without even thinking how people would actually perceive the message itself.
I've been following the industry for 25 years. Time and time again I've been reminded of some of the issues. The blackout period shouldn't exist. There is no reason to have a blackout period. Eric La Flèche himself agreed that prices do go up in February. Our data actually shows that too.
Every time there are some shenanigans going on up the food chain, consumers end up paying for it.